Obamacare's Oh-bummers for Americans

With Obamacare's March 31 sign-up deadline and subsequent penalties looming over the heads of young and old Americans, citizens are wondering more than ever -- and with good reason, I might add -- whether Washington has dished out another bill of bad goods. And here are a few more solid reasons our skepticism about socialist medicine continues.

Reporter Bob Unruh at WorldNetDaily recently reported about how Obamacare is blocking patients from paying for their own treatments. The feds are already capping what some citizens can spend on their own health care, even if those patients are willing and able to cover their own costs.

Unruh cited a new report from the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics, which warned that some seniors will not be permitted to spend as much as they wish on their health care.

The report points to several ways that Obamacare "will drastically limit access to life-saving medical treatment under the law. ... These four areas include: the (40 percent) 'excess benefit' tax coming into effect in 2018, the current exclusion of adequate health insurance plans from the exchanges, present limits on senior citizens' ability to use their own money for health insurance, and federal limits on the care doctors give their patients to be implemented as soon as 2016."

The study goes on to warn: "Essentially, doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers can be told by Washington just what diagnostic tests and medical care are considered to meet 'quality and efficiency' standards. These standards will be enforced not just for health care paid for by federally funded programs like Medicare, but also for health care paid for by private citizens and by the health insurance they or their employers purchase. ... Treatment that a doctor and patient deem needed or advisable to save the patient's life or preserve or improve the patient's health, but which runs afoul of the imposed standards, can be denied, even if the patient is willing and able to pay for it."

And if Obamacare doesn't cap Americans' spending on their own health care, it will raise their health care premiums and medical bills instead. Forbes published an expose last week on "4 Reasons Why Obamacare Exchange Premiums May 'Double In Some Parts Of The Country' In 2015." They include:

--"The White House is making up the rules as it goes along."

--"The administration has avoided talking about the individual mandate."

--"Many of the young people enrolling are pregnant women."

--"Obamacare's design gave insurers an incentive to 'underprice' in 2014."